Prior art 3 dimensional cameras rely on systems which capture two different images from two locations and present each image to each eye by means of well known devices, such as stereoviewers or stereoscopes.
Most recently, the recording of two stereoscopically related images from a single point in space, but requiring two separated scanning beams to illuminate the scent, was described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,699.
Additionally, three dimensional video images of an object or a scene have been effected with a single beam without using a camera. In such a system, the object is illuminated by modulated scanning light, such as a laser beam, which moves over the scene in a raster similar to the movement of an electron beam in a CRT. The modulated light from the laser beam reflected by the scene is picked up by a sensor which controls the beam intensity of a cathode ray tube of a video monitor. Thus, as the laser beam scans the object, the sensor senses variations in the reflected light, the phase of which is proportional to distance.
In addition to such systems, numerous efforts have been made to create a wide range of three dimensional imaging systems. Some of these systems have been described in a number of issued U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,372,645; 1,595,295, 2,235,743; 2,360,322; 2,568,327; 2,751,826; 3,039,358; 3,731,606; 3,810,213; 3,990,087; 4,009,951, 4,189,210; 4,290,675; and 3,431,299.